What people forget about the “Dominion settlement money” is that the settlement stipulated the money had to be used for energy-saving and renewable energy municipal projects.

Why is that important?

Well, mostly it’s important because none of that money would have hired a firefighter, patched a pothole, caught a drug dealer or knocked as much as a nickel off your water bill.

At best, the money might have been used for something like solar panels on the high school, something that wouldn’t make you feel much better if you live on, say, Jencks Street and “home invasion” is one of the things you worry about at night.

Don’t mistake what I’m saying. I think Fall River should have filled out all the requisite paperwork on time and gotten what most people now seem to think of as “our share” of the money, and I think someone needs to be punished for blowing the deadline.

Applying for money is Fall River does. If we fail at THAT, who are we?

We apply for grants, aid, settlements, assistance of all kinds. We apply for that stuff like poor folks apply for welfare. And we do it because Fall River is to Massachusetts what Sunset Hill is to Fall River.

Don’t feel insulted, though. New Bedford isn’t really doing any better and neither is Lawrence and a number of other cities in the Commonwealth.

The worst thing about the Dominion settlement flap is that the loss of “our share” is not what’s wrong with the city’s finances. It’s not even particularly symptomatic.

The Dominion settlement is a lottery hit, it’s money you find in the street. It’s one-time cash.

Fall River, by and large, doesn’t have a problem hitting the grant lottery. We blew this one but we’ll probably get the next grant, if only because most grants are based on need and, if there’s one thing we have, it’s need.

What we stink at is achieving self-sufficiency. What we can’t do is ever get to the point where we can get up off our knees and stop begging for welfare money.

What we can’t do is competently administer the money we do have. Instead, we borrow money for unnecessary parks, we hand out raises, we continue to cultivate the “hire your cousin” culture and we wait for “our share” of anything free being handed out by anyone, anywhere.

The “Dominion settlement” mess at Government Center is the perfect “scandal” for your Uncle Frank.

Page 2 of 2 - We all have an Uncle Frank. Uncle Frank hasn’t been employed full time for maybe seven or eight years, but he goes to political “times” and he can call at least two city councilors by their first names. In the fall, you can see Frank up by the President Avenue rotary, standing REAL close to the candidate, holding a sign.

If you don’t think you’re family has an Uncle Frank, it’s because you ARE Uncle Frank.

When talking politics, Frank begins his sentences with, “What they should do...” and, of course, “I’ll tell you what they’re gonna do...”

Yeah, Frank is an insider and he loves things like the “Dominion settlement scandal,” because it’s easy to talk about in a way that ongoing, painstaking financial management isn’t.

Why Fall River can’t have a fire department without federal help is a better question than why we didn’t get $800,000 in one time pocket money. I told you we are good at getting grants and we are. The feds gave us MILLIONS to run our fire department, a lottery hit, one time money, and we spent it and we never even thought about what we’d do when the grant ran out.

Steady, responsible, careful management of money paid to the city by the residents and property owners of the city creates a city that attracts businesses and can retain its working class. Grants don’t do that and settlement money doesn’t do that and you can’t do that with “anti-poverty initiatives.”

No business ever located in a city because city government had a good record of attracting anti-poverty grants. Businesses like to locate in cities where the tax rate and the number of cops and firefighters all remain relatively steady for periods as long as five years.

The Scandal of the Month gives Uncle Frank something to talk about at the dinner table, but the Scandal of the Month will be forgotten by the next election, when Uncle Frank will be out holding a sign.

Probably for an incumbent.

Marc Munroe Dion is a reporter and columnist for The Herald News. Email mdion@heraldnews.com.